


Every Minute

by Glowbug



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Feels, Gen, don't hate me, guesses accepted as to who, teeny hints of Luke/Aurora maybe, unlisted cameo character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 03:51:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7559029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowbug/pseuds/Glowbug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Azran Legacy has been averted, the sanctuary has crumbled, the people Aurora loves have escaped.</p>
<p>It's time to go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Minute

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [untitled gorgeous pic of Aurora underwater](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/214951) by krt003. 



She sinks into the lake—no longer covered in ice, now—but she does not fear drowning. She has never had a heartbeat, has never needed air.

She is dying anyway.

The water is cool against her skin, soothing. Her hair drifts out around her in a cloud.

_Goodbye, Professor Layton. Goodbye, Luke._

_Goodbye, Professor Sycamore, and Raymond, and Emmy, and Keats._

The last dregs of power of the Azran sanctuary fizz through her like the bubbling drink Luke convinced her to try in San Grio, and blend with the sunlight filtering down through the water. A small fish swims close enough to touch; she runs clumsy fingers along its fins and it flees in alarm.

_Say hello to Luke for me._

She is not quite sure how she saved them, only that, seeing those terribly still bodies, feeling the golems fall from the sky, her entire being had cried out for it. (Her soul? Does she have a soul?)

(She has a purpose. She has her _own_ purpose. It is enough.)

She still would have taken Luke’s hands, if she could have. Would have cried with him, if she could have. There is so much she would have said to him, to all of them, if there had been time. If there had been time.

_There’s never enough time_ , a voice whispers, and someone takes her hand, not there in the lake but in another realm entirely. _Especially not in love. There will always be lost futures._

_You’ll see them again, Aurora. But now it’s time to go._

Yes. But one last look—

Aurora lifts her face up toward the mirror-like surface of the lake. The debris has started to sink, and she can see the orange light of sunset. And if there is a dark shape at the lake’s edge that might be a hat—or a splash of dirt-streaked yellow—or a small, warm hand reaching out to ripple the water—then perhaps some good has come from the Azran Legacy after all.

What a wonderful gift, to be human. Aurora closes her eyes, and smiles.


End file.
